


...And Why That Didn't Work Out So Well

by SilverAmoebasquid



Series: STZ Week 2017 [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: A body-swap AU no one asked me for, Body Swap AU, because this was STUPID FUN TO WRITE YOU HAVE NO IDEA, but i did it anyway, day 3: AU, stz-week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 04:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10404294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverAmoebasquid/pseuds/SilverAmoebasquid
Summary: after getting locked in the gymnasium after practice(here), the shiratorizawa kids are met with an unexpected surprise





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of yesterday's [Sleepover Prompt](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/STZWeek2017/works/10394073) though a bit less realistic (as it is, after all, an AU) and a touch sillier. Good stuff people.
> 
> Also, I do really hope it's not super confusing having so many characters all swapping bodies!!!! Also, note that when referring to people as themselves in terms of personality and mental function, I'm using their given name and when referring to their physical form being inhabited by someone else, I'm using their last name.

Satori felt movement against him and his eyes drifted open. Remembering that he was still in the gym, surrounded by the others, and how they had fallen asleep last night in a pile on the blanket, he was careful not to move too much or risk waking the entire tired group up.

He reached down to touch Shirabu who would be laying on him, knowing it wasn’t always a great idea to wake their temperamental setter up before he was ready, but Satori was nothing if not an expert at starting chaos in his team.

Instead, when his hand shifted downwards, he met a shock of black hair instead of the dirty blond he was expecting.

Satori blinked himself into more awareness to fully acknowledge Goshiki curled up beside him, black hair sticking up in awkward directions. Somehow he had moved in the night, but that didn’t surprise Satori all that much. He reached down again to ruffle the first-year’s hair, then stopped short again as his hand came into view.

Suddenly fully aware, Satori sat up suddenly, looking around in confusion. “What!?”

There were a couple soft moans and movements throughout the group as Satori’s yell pierced their sleep.

But it wasn’t his yell he heard.

The first person on the floor to fully return from sleep blinked dark eyes tiredly and brushed straight black bangs out of his eyes, then laid eyes on him and turned deathly pale. “What the fuck!!?”

Satori had never heard such words come out of his first-year’s mouth before and his eyes widened.

 

Kenjirou had been awoken to a far more horrific sight. When he’d opened his eyes after barely sleeping a wink on the hard, wooden floor, he’d been immediately met with himself, looking straight back at him.

He jumped up instantly, not caring in the least about the person laying on him he’d sent to the floor.

“What the hell is going on here!” Kenjirou yelled, standing face to face with... himself, though he found himself looking down slightly.

“Tsutomu?” Satori asked nervously, reaching out to touch the shoulder in front of him.

“I’m not Tsutomu. It’s me, Kenjirou. But my body...” He reached out, touched his own face.

Satori looked past Kenjirou to where his own body was lying sprawled on the floor as everyone else began to wake up.

“Guys don’t panic!” Satori jumped toward the group, waving his arms. “There’s something weird going on, but don’t scream!”

There were looks of horror all around for a few minutes but everyone stayed quiet, just looking at each other.

“Wait, I think I get it!” said Wakatoshi’s body with more tone than the captain had ever expressed in his life. “We swapped bodies!”

“The hell are you talking about, that’s physically impossible!” Goshiki’s body returned, unnatural scorn lacing his voice.

“Look around though,” Reon’s mouth moved. “Do you have a better explanation?”

Unfamiliar hand shaking, Kenjirou rejoined the circle on the floor, looking around the circle of his confused teammates. “Okay. Before we can accomplish anything else, who is who here? Who am I? I-I’m Kenjirou, but...” looking at his hands and looking around the circle, Kenjirou knew. “I’m in Tsutomu’s body?”

There were a few slight nods.

Kenjirou took a deep breath through lungs that weren’t his. He glanced over at his own body, looking back at him solemnly. “Satori, that’s you in my body, right?”

“Yeah! This might actually be kinda fun...”

“Please never make my mouth say that again. Also please don’t do anything to me...”

“You never know, Kenjirou, this could be permanent!”

“I’m stopping you right there,” Oohira spoke. “There’s no way this is permanent. If it happened once, it can un-happen.”

“Hayato, is that you?” Satori raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. But I think I’m also one of the tallest people here now and that’s wicked. I take it back, this can be permanent.”

Kenjirou rolled his eyes. “Okay so I’m in Goshiki’s body, Satori is in my body, Hayato is in Oohira’s body...”

“I’m the real Reon,” Kawanishi raised his hand.

“I-I’m...” Tsutomu clasped his hands over Ushijima’s mouth.

“Oh hell no, we have to take orders from you!?” Kenjirou smacked his hand on the ground loudly.

A grin spread across Ushijima’s face. “I’m in Ushijima’s body... This is weird!”

Satori snickered. “Where’s the real Wakatoshi?”

“I am here.” The words came out of Yamagata’s mouth and everyone looked over in surprise.

“And the tallest becomes the shortest, eh?” Satori laughed again.

“It would appear that way,” Wakatoshi replied, only the slightest hint of annoyance in his voice.

“And that would explain  _ that _ ,” Kenjirou pointed to Tendou’s still sleeping form on the floor. “That’s Taichi.”

“Shouldn’t we wake him up and let him know what’s going on?” Tsutomu asked worriedly.

Satori poked his own body rapidly until Taichi stirred and opened his eyes.

“What...” he mumbled.

“Not to alarm you, but we’ve swapped bodies. Just FYI,” Reon asserted.

Taichi blinked, staring up at Reon in his own body. “Is this a prank?”

Kenjirou sighed. “I wish.”

“Well, that’s dumb.”

“Really, that’s all you got? ‘That’s dumb’?”

“This is weird. I don’t think Goshiki is capable of being that annoyed.”

“That’s ‘cause I’m not Tsutomu, you twat. Pay attention.”

“Hey, guys, shut up a second!” Reon shushed them as voices came into focus.

They all jumped slightly as the door banged open.

“What?” Semi blinked in surprise and stepped back outside. “I’m going to close my eyes, count to ten, then I’m going to turn back around and you people better not be in there.”

Jin poked his head inside the doors as well. “Eita, when you said Satori was probably out partying all night, this was not what I pictured.”

“We’ve been saved!!!” Satori jumped to his feet, bounding towards the door.

Semi raised an eyebrow. “Shirabu, what are you doing?”

Satori stopped short. That was true. He looked like Shirabu right now and this was hugely out of character. He cleared his throat. “I! I’ll punch the both of you for this! The sheer nerve of locking us in here overnight! Just wait until I tattle on Washijou!”

“Woah, simmer down,” Jin frowned. “Nobody meant to lock you in here. We left the door open and stuff. But have you guys actually been here all night? Go get some rest, you don’t need to be at morning practice! Go back to your rooms! I’ll explain to coach.”

“Thank you, guys. We appreciate that a lot.” Hayato stood up, falling into his role as Oohira quite smoothly. “Don’t mind them, they’re all really just tired. It’s been a long night of no cell service or wifi to call for assistance.”

Semi shrugged. “It’s okay. But yeah, go get some rest. See you all later.”

The group stood up slowly and sorely from the rough night on the floor, ambling over to the front wall where they’d left their backpacks.

Kenjirou reached for his instinctively, but paused as Jin gave him a funny look.

“Goshiki, are you sure you’re alright? That’s not yours...”

Kenjirou realized his mistake at once and grabbed for Goshiki’s backpack instead. “R-right. Sorry, just tired. I’m always stupid, though, you shouldn’t be so surprised.”

The real Tsutomu in Ushijima’s body looked over, frowning.

Jin looked confused and walked away slowly.

“Kenjirou, please don’t call me stupid...” Tsutomu said softly grabbing Ushijima’s backpack and heading out the door.

“What was I supposed to say?”

“Not that...” The hurt expression looked out of place on Ushijima’s face.

“Hey, careful Kenjirou, he could punch you in the face and it would hurt a lot.” Satori jumped in beside them, holding Shirabu’s backpack.

Kenjirou glared. “Whatever. Can I have my backpack now? We’re away from the gym.

“We should probably discuss this a little bit more,” Reon pointed out. “Do we really have to do this or can we just tell people what happened?”

“No way!” Hayato inserted. “Everyone knows if something supernatural happens, you can’t tell anyone else or they’ll send you to the government to be dissected!”

“That only happens in movies.” Kenjirou shook his head.

“Oh really?” Hayato grabbed Shirabu’s body and Satori played along. “What happened to Kenjirou? Here’s his body, but where’s his mind? Is he in there somewhere?” Hayato slid a finger down the center of Shirabu’s chest. “Let’s find out.”

Kenjirou shuddered involuntarily.

“Exactly.” Hayato released Satori.

“So what do we do?” Reon asked.

“I think we wait a little bit. Maybe it’ll wear off on its own when we’re sleeping tonight.”

“But until then we have to pretend to be each other?” Tsutomu asked.

“Exactly. It’s not going to be ideal, and people will probably be suspicious, but hopefully this doesn’t last long enough to matter anyway. We just do our best to play the parts convincingly and hope for the best.”

“Are we going to have to play each other’s positions at practice tonight?” Tsutomu asked.

“Tsutomu, you have to lead,” Wakatoshi spoke up. “You’re in my body and people are going to look to you. You know what to do, so just do it.”

Tsutomu nodded firmly. “I got it! I’ll do my best to lead the team while it’s my job!”

“Don’t sound so excited about it. You’re Ushijima, remember.” Hayato rolled his eyes.

“Guys, there’s another problem,” Kenjirou interrupted. “We have to go to class. And I swear, Satori, if my grades drop by a  _ centimeter _ while you’re in my body, I will personally kick you in the head.”

Satori laughed. “Fine, I’ll try to stay awake in class while I’m pretending to be you.”

“No, you will take notes and do assignments like I do. Don’t be an asshole.”

“I’m scared,” Tsutomu inserted. “I don’t think I can handle third-year classes!”

“Everyone just needs to do the best they can, alright?” Reon said. “That’s all we can really ask for at this point. Everyone just take a good power nap for now, reorient yourselves as who you are right now, and we’ll do everything we can today.”

They split off into each other’s dorm rooms to get some rest. Thankfully, the rest of the members of the volleyball club were already out of their rooms for breakfast and morning practice so it was fairly easy to catch some quick Zs.

 

Taichi and Tsutomu had the hardest roles to play, having to attend classes at a higher grade level than them, though the expectations for Tendou weren’t remarkably high anyway. Despite not knowing what was going on, Taichi was able to keep up decently well.

Tsutomu had a bit more trouble maintaining. He was smart, but not so smart that a sudden transition to a third-year class was all that easy.

When the seven gathered for lunch, they did their best to exclude any of their other teammates from the table.

“Uh, Eita, you can’t be here right now! We have to talk about something, uh, just the seven of us right now!” Taichi put as much flare into Tendou’s voice as he could when Semi started to sit down next to him.

Semi frowned. “Is this a volleyball thing?”

“Um... No?”

“Oh, I get it, it’s fine. You guys have your starting team clique. I’ll go sit with the other losers.” Semi rolled his eyes and stalked away.

“Nice going,” The real Satori said, elbowing his body in the ribs. “Now my best friend slash roommate hates me. That’s nothing new, though. Good job being me, Taichi!”

Taichi sighed. “When can we switch bodies back? I hate this.”

“So how did classes go this morning?” Reon changed the subject quickly before an argument broke out.

“I took a whole bunch of notes, though I didn’t really understand what was going on,” Tsutomu said, shoving a notebook full of notes in front of Wakatoshi.

He gave them a cursory glance and nodded. “Thank you, Tsutomu. “I’ll look over these tonight and fill you in as best I can on the chance we don’t switch back.”

“Tsutomu, your classes were boring as heck,” Kenjirou commented. “I thought I was going to fall asleep, but I took some notes for you as well.”

“Thank you! I suppose you’ve already taken all the classes I’m in. I trust you to take care of me!”

“Yeah, whatever. Satori, how was my class?”

“I looked at your grades. You can afford to have a slack day.”

“Satori! Please tell me you didn’t just mess around all day!”

“It was for a good cause! How often do you take the time to appreciate that cute boy in the seat behind you?”

“What.”

“He’s hot. I couldn’t help talking to him. You should be grateful; I’m going to get you set up on a date.”

“I don’t need to be set up on dates, I need my grades!”

“Hey, stop yelling!” Reon pulled Goshiki’s body back down to the lunch table’s bench as Kenjirou rose in anger.

“It’s fine. Satori, do a better job though tomorrow. Kenjirou has some very high standards placed on him and you need to do your best to maintain them. Taichi, I think you’re okay, I remember what’s going on right now from last year.”

“Thank you. And I suppose Wakatoshi and Hayato, you guys are still in third-year classes. So not much has changed on that front.”

Wakatoshi shook his head. “We should be pretty solid. Should we be in the gym getting extra practice, though? We’re going to struggle this afternoon I feel.”

“We’re all pretty well-rounded players,” Hayato shrugged. “We have our specialties, but I think we can do passably in other positions.”

Kenjirou raised an eyebrow. “And how confident are you in your skills as a  _ spiker _ ?”

“I know I can do it. How about you?”

“I don’t know if I have the skills to time quicks, but I know how to spike. It was never something I ever paid much attention to, but it shouldn’t be too hard.”

Wakatoshi looked over to his own body. “Tsutomu, you’re the only one playing the position you normally do. Take advantage of that. We’re pretty much going to be in a state of disarray. When we get down there, ask coach if we can have some time just the seven of us to work out some new strategies. With luck, we can stay isolated from the others and attract as little attention as possible.

“So we’re just hiding basically?” Tsutomu asked.

“We don’t have a lot of choices right now.” Reon put a comforting hand on Tsutomu’s shoulder.

 

Afternoon classes went off with about the same result as the first few and they walked down to the gym for practice together when the final bell had rung.

“C-coach, can we have some time to work by ourselves today?” Tsutomu approached Washijou hesitantly, trying to make his movements seem more calm and strong like Ushijima’s.

Washijou looked up at him and narrowed his eyes. “What for?”

“We were going to try something new out but we don’t want to keep anyone else from regular practice.”

“Is that the best use of your time today?”

“Sir, we’re very solid in most everything else. Having something like this might be what we need to stand out from the crowd.”

“Alright, you guys can have some time. I’ll come check up on you guys after a little bit.”

Tsutomu bowed and raced back over to his companions. “Okay, we’re safe for a little bit, but he’s going to come over and check on us and he’ll definitely be watching us. We have to come up with something so he doesn’t get too suspicious.”

“That’s fine,” Kenjirou said, arms folded across his chest. “I know exactly what we need to do. We need to play our normal positions.”

He got blank looks in return.

“Hear me out. Washijou isn’t going to be particularly pleased because he hates trickery, but I think we’ll be able to pull it off just for today that it could be a tactical advantage to be able to fall into other roles at a moment’s notice to throw the other team off. So we play the positions we know how to play and everyone thinks it’s just a cool trick and no one will suspect something crazy like swapping bodies.”

Satori clapped Kenjirou on the back. “That’s genius!”

“Shut up, you still have to act like me. Calm down like 400%.”

“Then you have to be more bubbly,” Tsutomu pointed out.

“Then you need to—”

“Guys, just shut up!” Reon sighed. “Let’s just practice, okay?”

Hayato inserted, “While we’re free to practice on our own, we can work on the positions we’re ‘supposed’ to be playing because we’ll probably be expected to work on that at some point and we need to not suck.”

“I agree,” Kenjirou nodded. “But if we can pull this off, we’ll be safe for at least a little longer.”

“Is Washijou really going to buy us switching positions and be better at that than what we should be playing?” Wakatoshi asked.

Kenjirou shrugged. “If you have any better ideas, I’d love to hear them. As long as we do our best to stay in persona, it’s our best chance at keeping our secret safe.”

“I guess it’s really the only shot we have,” Hayato said. “Let’s give it a go. But for now, we still need to try getting better at the roles we’re supposed to be playing.”

They collectively nodded and split off onto their separate court.

“Hey, Kenjirou.”

Kenjirou looked behind him to see Ushijima, looking intense as ever, despite the puppy currently occupying his body. “Yeah?”

“As far as I can see from this trying some things out this morning, we have all the physical abilities of whose body we have.”

“Yes. What’s your point?”

“You don’t have to worry about not being good enough at what I do. Spiking, serving, all of that. You have the ability to do it exactly like I do it. All you have to do is think it. And I know you know how to do that.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you’re nervous about making a fool of yourself.”

“I’m not nervous about anything, Tsutomu. Go get in Ushijima’s position.”

Tsutomu paused. “I... Okay.”

Kenjirou shook his head and started stretching with the others. The difference was very clear now. He couldn’t stretch as far as normal in a lot of places, but he could quite clearly feel Tsutomu’s strength.

As they transitioned into some warm-up drills, Kenjirou took a deep breath. Tsutomu had been right; Kenjirou was terrified of making a fool of himself, even if he wasn’t so much making a fool of himself now as Tsutomu. He just couldn’t bear the thought of the ignominy that messing up such simple tasks as spiking would bring, but the fact of the matter was, he was a setter and had been for his entire volleyball career. His spiking knowledge and experience were next to none. He knew the theory, but in practice? He had no idea if he’d be able to do that.

He took a deep breath and served the ball over the net with the others. All of them were a bit shaky, getting used to their new bodies, but Kenjirou could feel the difference in his and Goshiki’s strength. And he was always complaining about Goshiki’s lack of accuracy in serving, but if he could combine his own accuracy with Goshiki’s strength, he could probably become a force to be reckoned with at serving at least.

Grabbing another ball, he utilized the extra strength and applied every ounce of his focus on getting the ball to go exactly where he wanted it to go, immediately pleased as it smacked the other side of the court, near the back line, but just within the white border.

Hayato seemed to be having the most trouble serving, though that wasn’t much of a surprise. Fortunately, Kawanishi’s served had never been the star of the show, so as long as he could get it over the net, no one would bat an eye.

“Kenjirou, your body sucks!” Satori said louder than he probably should have a few minutes later.

Kenjirou glared. “Pardon me?”

“You need to go lift some weights. Or really just do anything other than sit in your room and do homework during your free time.”

“Trust me, to be a good setter, you have at your disposal exactly what you need.”

“Have you ever worked out?”

“I come to volleyball practice every day and I can distance run further than you’ll ever be able to. Sorry your muscle brain doesn’t know how to deal with a finely tuned machine.”

Hayato put a hand on Kenjirou’s shoulder. “Those are some gutsy words to a person who can do pretty much whatever he wants with your body. I’d be careful. This is Satori you’re talking to.”

Kenjirou glared. “Don’t do anything gross with my body...”

“I’m gonna go get you a better haircut after practice today. Or a tattoo!” Satori suggested.

“Don’t you dare!”

“Guys, shut up! Let’s just play!” Tsutomu commanded with Ushijima’s authoritative voice.

The others snapped back to attention and began attempting to play.

Wakatoshi found it an odd sensation to be trapped in the body of his libero. For one, he was a lot closer to the ground. For another thing, all he did was receive. Under normal circumstances, he almost never picked up receives, relying on others so he could be better used for spiking. That wasn’t to say he didn’t know how to do receives, since he was a very good player, all around, but this was an entirely different experience, having to dive after every ball that flew in his direction.

Satori had thought he had good ball control, and he certainly wasn’t the worst. His overhand tosses were solid and he didn’t have much trouble at least getting them in the general direction he wanted them to go. But he quickly realized that he didn’t have what it took to be the setter of Miyagi’s best team. Still and all, he wasn’t failing as spectacularly as he thought he might. The only thing getting in his way was his new height difference and having to be aware of more sections of the court.

Hayato was willing to bet that he was having the hardest time of all of them adjusting to the change. He didn’t normally spike or serve and now he was supposed to be filling the role of one of the best. He was surprised by Oohira’s strength and was sure that if he could figure out the theory behind spiking, it wouldn’t actually prove to be that hard. From his experience though, it was a challenge to use only the information he’d gathered receiving spikes and watching from behind to actually spike by himself.

Taichi was extremely glad that he didn’t have to work all that hard to learn a new position. Really, there were very few changes he had to make, even being in Tendou’s body. He took his advantage very seriously though and focused much of his energy on helping his more inconvenienced teammates as best he could. He picked up as many receives as he could get to to help out Wakatoshi who was having a hard time getting used to operating in Yamagata’s body.

Reon also counted himself very lucky. By no means was he as talented a middle blocker as Kawanishi, but he was used to the height and the job he did was fairly simple. He did his best to keep everyone else in line when they struggled and helped call out tosses and receives when the pretend gameplay was getting overwhelming for his teammates.

Kenjirou had had just about enough of spiking. He wasn’t good at it, he couldn’t visualize the ball from this perspective well enough, and it was exhausting. Being in Goshiki’s body had its perks and as long as he kept himself in the right mindset, he could manage to spike over the net, but it was by no means a natural feeling or a pretty sight. Provided they could switch back into their original bodies, he swore he’d never spike a ball again.

Tsutomu thought he’d be having the time of his life. All his normal capabilities and responsibilities on the team only amplified by Ushijima’s overwhelming strength. Instead, the opposite happened when he ran up to the net and suddenly. His right arm wasn’t working the way he wanted it to. He flailed a bit and fell back to the floor, staring at his hands.

“You’re left handed...” he whispered to himself. “I don’t think I can do this.”

Satori ran over, looking slightly confused. “Was that a bad toss? I didn’t think it sucked so bad!”

Tsutomu shook his head. “I don’t know how to spike left-handed.”

Satori’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even think about that!!”

Suddenly a new voice joined the group. “Have you guys made any progress yet or is this just a waste of time?”

“W-Washijou sensei!” Satori stammered. “Of course we’ve made progress!”

The old man narrowed his eyes. “You sound like you’re lying to me, Shirabu.”

The real Kenjirou stepped in, putting as much enthusiasm into Goshiki’s voice as he could. “He’s not lying, I think we have made awesome progress and our plan is totally cool! H-he just sounds nervous because, well, because he’s Shirabu. That’s all.”

Washijou still looked skeptical, but he crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed the group. “Alright, well let me see it.”

“Okay,” Reon started. “The trick is that once the opposing team gets used to who we are, we do this!”

He tossed the ball in the air.

Everyone scattered into a familiar and well-practiced formation and Kenjirou went for the ball, tossing it towards Wakatoshi.

Washijou frowned deeper as his libero spiked the ball solidly over the net.

The seven looked to their coach expectantly, all holding their breath.

“It’s against the rules for a libero to spike. What is the purpose of this maneuver?”

“That aside, aren’t you just a little bit impressed?” Kenjirou offered. “We could use it sometime to confuse our adversaries.”

“Goshiki, you know this. We don’t win by trickery, but by sheer strength alone. Come rejoin practice.”

The seven exchanged glances but made their way back to the main courts anyway.

Gameplay began and it was clear right off the bat that they were nowhere near the caliber of their teammates.

Washijou stopped them again only minutes into the practice game. “What are you guys doing out there! You’re not going to make it past the first game of a tournament like that. What is going on?”

They stayed silent. 

“Well? I’m waiting for an answer!”

“We don’t have an answer,” Hayato mumbled.

“Then fix the problem whatever it is. You guys better be a hundred times better when you step back on that court or we’re going to have a serious conversation about who our starting players are.”

There were a few solemn nods before they ran back out onto the court to try again.

This play started out just as bad as the first and something seriously had to be done.

The ball was passed to Satori who shakily tossed to the ace.

Kenjirou bit his lip and ran up to the net as well. “Here!”

Tsutomu shot him a look as he was already jumping.

Kenjirou set his trajectory, directly toward Tsutomu.

They collided in midair and both went flying.

Still the smaller of the two, Kenjirou hit the ground harder, though he immediately scrambled over to Tsutomu.

“Hold your left arm. Pretend you’re hurt. It’s the only way,” he whispered frantically.

Tsutomu seemed to understand a second later and he drew his left arm to his chest.

By the time everyone else made their way over, Kenjirou was helping Tsutomu to his feet.

“I’m really so so sososo sorry!” Kenjirou covered his face with his hands. “I can’t believe I did something so stupid, This is all my fault!”

Kenjirou rejoined his teammates as Washijou left the court with his star spiker.

“Are you okay?” Reon asked. “We should’ve been more careful overall. Getting hurt is all too easy when we’re not comfortable in our bodies.”

Kenjirou shook his head. “He’s not actually hurt. He needed to be off the court though before something did happen. Wakatoshi, we can’t put your position at risk when if—  _ when _ we switch back because Tsutomu doesn’t know how to handle it. Also, he was bound to break down after too much criticism and that wouldn’t be good for your image either.”

Wakatoshi nodded. “That’s honorable of you to think of me, Kenjirou. Is he really okay, though?”

“He looked fine. I told him to act hurt. But we  _ have _ to change back into ourselves tonight or this team is going to fall apart.”

“We have to change our plan a little bit here,” Hayato interjected. “We can’t pretend to be exactly like whoever’s body we’re in right now. Use the strengths you have and just try not to get hurt or lose too spectacularly.”

They all nodded and went back to the court.

 

Satori’s tosses were less like Shirabu’s and more based off of where the other side’s block was. What he understood was blocking and specifically, guess blocking. He couldn’t give the same high simple tosses, but he knew exactly where the ball  _ should _ go, so he sent it there.

Everyone else followed suit, shaping their game around their control tower. The difference between this and their normal power was still significant, but they managed to come out on top by two points.

The looks they were still getting from Washijou were murderous, but they simply ignored him the best they could as everyone started heading towards the locker room when practice was finished.

The coach disappeared from the gym after a while and just like most nights, it was just the seven of them. Though tonight they still had the key to the door.

As soon as they were alone, they collapsed against each other on the gym floor.

“That sucked,  _ so bad _ !” Satori complained.

“Yeah, we’re not that great at being people we’re not supposed to be...” Hayato looked at the floor.

“But we did it!” Tsutomu inserted. “We made it through the day. And... I didn’t get a whole lot better because I was on the sideline for most of the time—Thanks, Kenjirou. I don’t know how long I would’ve been able to fake—but the rest of you guys I think are better players! It was cool to watch you combine your skills to be a cohesive team! You even won! And our backup team is still better than most teams in Miyagi!”

Reon smiled slightly. “That is true. Thank you for your optimism, Tsutomu.”

Everyone seemed a little more relaxed now, but there was still a large problem at hand.

“So how are we going to find a way to switch bodies back?” Taichi asked. “For highest success probability, I say we spend another night in the gym. Also because I don’t want to share a room with Semi tonight.”

“He’s not a bad roommate!” Satori defended.

“You can’t fool me...” Taichi muttered. “At least Kenjirou’s quiet when he’s studying his ass off at 2 am with the lights on...”

“At least I don’t snore,” Kenjirou shot back.

“Not always!”

“Yeah, you shut up when I throw shit at you in the middle of the night.”

“That is you, I knew it...”

Hayato cleared his throat. “Back on topic...”

“I want my body back,” Tsutomu said nervously. “If sleeping in the gym the best way to make that happen, then that’s what I want to do.”

“Same here,” Kenjirou voted. “I don’t want to have to put up with Goshiki’s dumb, first-year, twat roommate. So...”

“I don’t even think I have the energy to make it back to my room,” Hayato sighed. “So I’m chill if we spend the night here. Being a spiker is hard. Kudos to you guys.”

“I return the compliment,” Wakatoshi nodded. “Receiving full-time is a difficult job and you do it quite well.”

A hush fell over the tired group and they all began falling against each other as the strain of the stressful day began to take its toll.

Instead of pulling any of his teammates to sleep on him, Satori rested his head down on his own body and closed his eyes, almost too excited by wondering if this would prove effective to fall asleep, but as quickly as the thought entered his head, he drifted back off.

 

Tsutomu opened his eyes to sunlight streaming in the small gym windows and he yawned groggily for a moment before his eyes snapped all the way open. They were in the gym. All of them. Whose bodies were they in now?

He sat up suddenly, looking at his hands, looking at the people around him. He was too excited to think clearly so he vigorously shook the shoulders of the nearest person to him.

“St- Stop touching me!”

“Kenjirou?”

“What about it— Oh.”

“You’re you again! Am I me?”

“Y-you are.”

“What about everyone else!?” Tsutomu proceeded to roughly shake everyone awake. “Guys, wake up! I think we’re back to normal!”

With varying degrees of enthusiasm, the team woke up and examined themselves and their friends.

“Hey, can we practice more before everyone else gets here?” Tsutomu exclaimed, leaping to his feet. “We need to be back at the top of our game today or we’re gonna get in so much trouble!”

Aside from having to smack Taichi a few times to get him to fully wake up, there were no arguments to the additional practice and they immediately started passing back and forth before taking a few stabs at normal plays. Every piece of the puzzle clicked back into place and they hit the ball over the net time and time again.

The gym doors opened once again and Semi and Jin pulled themselves back into the large space, watching the regular team silently for a moment as Wakatoshi spiked so hard the ball flew back up into the air and touched the ceiling.

“Impressive,” Semi commented. “What is going on with you guys lately?”

“Did you miss me in bed last night, Eita?” Satori teased.

“What? No, it was great. It was so quiet without you. Have you guys been here all night?”

“We just had a few things to take care of together. Then we came back here to get in some more practice before everyone else gets here,” Reon said gently. “Don’t worry about it.”

“So are you guys better than you were yesterday? Because you sucked yesterday.”

“We still beat you guys,” Kenjirou argued.

“You still sucked.”

“Hey, cut it out.” Satori jumped in between the two. “Everything’s back to normal now and we’re still the best team in Miyagi! Probably even better now!”

“So you guys were out here practicing?” Jin asked worriedly.”

“Eh,” Hayato waved dismissively. “A little bit. But what’s important is everyone understands how each other works a little bit better now. So now no one’s going to be able to beat us.”


End file.
